Film Look

Advice on the simplest way to make video look more like film?
I usually shoot with film so it's no problem, but I had to do a quick project on video, with a cheap camera to boot. Not looking for the "Super 8" lines, dust, etc.. just more of the color wavelengths and motion feel.
Running PowerMac G5 with Final Cut Express HD, and Leopard.

Sorry if this is a basic one, but I couldn't find it on the FAQ's...

Thanks!

Simplest is just deinterlace, and tweak the contrast a bit.

Next step up is to use a better deinterlacer to preserve more resolution. Maybe use some curves for the contrast, and some diffusion or other effects.

Finally, I can recommend you take a look at my Film Effects plugin package which does all that and more, and instead of deinterlacing can convert to 24p with proper 3:2 pulldown added for a very convincing facsimile of a film transfer to video.

Graeme

[www.nattress.com] - Plugins for FCP-X

Another thing I've found easy but somehow effective is to simply make it widescreen. Drop a Widescreen Matte on it, and it will have a much more "Filmy" look. This alone won't make it look like film, but along with what Graeme says, can add to the effect.

Crush the blacks (Levels) / bump up the contrast & Saturation. Deinterlace.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Just crushing blacks and/or increasing contrast will make the image look more saturated anyway, so got to be careful on that saturation control. Of course, not all film looks saturated. If you're going for a bleach bypass kinda look, you'd back off the saturation instead.

Graeme

Of course, Graeme...that's just one solution...which is why I mainly use Magic Bullet Looks for a limitless selection of film looks:

[prolost.blogspot.com]

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

slight vignetting will knock the edge off the video flatness.

pretty sure there's one of those in Graeme's set.
a good free one here along with a free "facelight":
[www.haiku.com.au]


nick

Before spending money on Magic Bullet, Graeme offers some great plug-ins at a great price that you should check out plus if you have FCS2 you have one of the best tools for creating just about any look you want, Color.

It is very easy to use, fast and incredibly flexible.

Just a thought.

I find Color cumbersome and not user-friendly at all (IMHO). I thought I would use it much more than I have since it was added to the FCS package but to be honest...I haven't touched it more than twice.

Graeme does have nice stuff. I recommend Magic Bullet not to stomp on Nattress sales...but because I have been using it since way back before I even heard of Nattress anything. I only recommend what I use & have experience with. MBL is intuitive & the interface is incredible. I love the multitude of preset looks in MBL that you can tweak / customize. It may be worth a look / demo.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.